Brand New Chafe Point. Awesome.

I went out for my weekly 10-mile run today. I had big plans at first. I was going to zig-zag around town until I reached about 8 miles or so, then head back to the apartment. This takes quite a bit of willpower, because you’re never more than two miles from home. If you get lazy after four miles, you can wimp out.

But last night, Cara and I went to an Irish music concert downtown. And this afternoon we’re going to see Green Lantern. And tonight I’m going to see Radio Cult in concert. And… I need to work on the final stages of a cartoon I’m working on for them. And after all that, the damned dog woke me up an hour early so he could go out and take a power dump. It was going to be a long day.

That being said, I wasn’t going to wimp out. I was still going to hit the pavement and finish my 10 miles. To do that, I removed the temptation of being close to home. I ran a big, long loop around Columbia. I had to do a few twists and turns near the end to make the distance, but by that time I was in my groove. I wasn’t willing to cross my own line today, so I made a last-minute turn before the apartment. I stopped the timer at 10 miles exactly, and closed the loop with a cool-down walk.

I was pretty happy when I noticed that Cara had just started to shower after her own 5K run. After a quick shave, I jumped in and quickly found out exactly where I’ve chaffed.

Now, let me explain that a bit. I’ve gained weight over the past year, so I have all these points on my body where I have to apply liberal amounts of BodyGlide. It’s no biggie for the short runs, but the long runs really cut me up. It’s only going to last until the weight drops (just like last time) but once in a while something surprises me.

Take a look at that photo on the left. For the first time ever, I’ve managed to chafe my inner elbows. WTF? Did I have my arms in a funny position or something? That’s got to be it, right? It’s not a new t-shirt. Either my sleeves were a little low before sweat glued them to me, or I’m out there running like some kind of idiot. Either way, I’ll keep an eye on things in the near future.